OPERATIONS: AIR TRANSPORT
UK outlines aviation security bill
UK Secretary of State for Transport Cecil Parkinson
has presented new measures to
strengthen the 1982 Aviation
Security Act.
The new measures will give
Department of Transport (DTp)
inspectors greater powers to en
force security requirements, and
security infringements by in
dividuals will become punish
able by law. "My department has
issued several new directives to
UK airports, requiring, for exam
ple, tougher access control for
staff in restricted zones, tighter
rules for the issuing of security
passes and new rules for the
searching and guarding of air
craft," says Parkinson.
Aviation security inspectors
will be given powers to take
immediate action if security
requirements on aircraft or at
airports are not being im
plemented. This will include the
authority to stop operations until
remedial action is taken or to
require deficiencies to be rem
edied by a given time. Compa
nies with airport access for
services such as catering, cargo
British police at Heathrow, armed
with Heckler & Kech HK53
sub-machine guns. The armed
patrols started in January 1986
handling and aircraft cleaning
will also be subject to DTp
security directives.
Individuals will also be
brought within the scope of the
new legislation, and acts preju
dicial to security will become
criminal offences. These include:
giving false information about
baggage or cargo; giving false
information when applying for a
pass; being in a restricted zone
without proper authority; board
ing an aircraft without proper
authority; and refusing to leave a
restricted zone or aircraft when
requested to do so. Other powers
are intended to give the Civil
Aviation Authority more effec
tive powers to enforce dangerous
goods requirements.
Operating UK airports (and
companies which supply them)
will become far more complex
and costly if recommendations in
the new Parliamentary Transport
Committee's Airport Security
Report are made law. Some of the
recommendations will be put
into action by the amended Avi
ation Security Act, but beyond
that the committee wants: spot
checks by inspectors posing as
terrorists; a mandatory reporting
system for breaches of security;
pilots to certify, before every
take-off, that all required se
curity procedures have been car
ried out; with immediate effect,
hand baggage should be rec
onciled in the aircraft with pas
sengers. •
Volcano flames out KLM 747
A KLM Boeing 747-400 suf fered a simultaneous flame-
out of all four engines after flying
into a cloud of volcanic ash over
Alaska on 15 December.
The aircraft was operating on
the scheduled service from
Amsterdam to Tokyo via An
chorage, Alaska with 233
passengers.
An Alaskan volcano, Mount
Redoubt, had erupted a week
previously, leading to the tem
porary closure of some airways
until the clouds of ash thrown
out by the volcano had
dispersed.
The KLM flight was the first to
penetrate the area after the ban
had been lifted. The Federal Avi
ation Administration believed
that the danger had passed and
the clouds dispersed. KLM had
also obtained once-only per
mission for the aircraft to pene
trate Soviet airspace to route
around the forecast ash disper
sion zone if necessary.
But Mount Redoubt erupted
again an hour before the 747
arrived in the area, at night, and
the crew did not realise that the
dark cloud they were penetrating
was ash.
The flame-outs came simulta
neously at 23.50 as the aircraft
was • descending through
31,000ft. The crew, Captain
Karel van der Elst, Senior First
Officer Imme Viascher and First
Officer Waltar Vuurbomm, man
aged to relight two engines as the
aircraft passed through 13,000ft
and the other two came back on
line at 6,000ft. The aircraft
landed safely at Anchorage.
None of the passengers was re
ported injured, although several
were said to be shaken.
KLM grounded the aircraft for
all four engines to be changed
and for damage inspection,
particularly to transparencies,
from the abrasive dust. A British
Airways 747 suffered a similar
four-engine flame-out after
penetrating a volcanic cloud over
Indonesia several years ago. •
Air Europe
begins Fokker 100
services
Air Europe's new Fokker 100
xVstarted operations to Diissel-
dorf, West Germany, on 8
December, replacing the Shorts
360s which were providing the
service.
The Gatwick-Dusseldorf ser
vice has been increased to three
daily, five days a week. The
Fokker 100 also flies Dusseldorf-
Gatwick on Saturday, and
Gatwick-Dusseldorf-Gatwick on
Sunday, as well as being available
for charter on those days.
The airline expected to have
four 100s in service by the end of
December. The other three air
craft are covering the routes to
Paris and Brussels, gradually
replacing Air Europe's Boeing
737s and increasing the service
frequency to those cities. Peak
periods on these routes will con
tinue to be covered by 737s for
the time being. •
US airlines
investigated for
price fixing
The US Justice Department is investigating several major
airlines to determine whether
they collaborated illegally on a
round of fare increases which
took effect in September.
Under US anti-trust laws, air
lines may not discuss or agree on
fare increases before they are
introduced, although carriers
competing on individual routes
invariably follow suit almost im
mediately whenever a price rise
or cut is announced.
On 18 September American
Airlines announced that it was
increasing prices across a range
of fare categories, tied to the
number of days before departure
that tickets are purchased. Two
days later Midway Airlines and
TWA increased their fares in line
with American's rises, and on 21
September, Delta, Pan American
and Continental followed suit.
Over the next few days United
Airlines, Northwest Airlines and
USAir all announced fare in
creases which followed the same
pattern.
The Justice Department's Anti
trust division is investigating the
price rises and last week sent out
"civil investigative demands" to
several airlines, incuding Ameri
can and Pan Am. Both airlines
confirm that they are co-operat
ing with the investigation, and
that they have supplied "large
numbers of documents" relating
to the price rises, including how
the rises were decided, and the
names of executives involved in
the decisions.
This is not the first time that
American has been investigated
for alleged price fixing. In 1982
American chairman Robert
Crandall made a well-publicised
phone call to former Braniff
chairman Howard Putnam, then
a competitor at Dallas/Fort
Worth, in which he allegedly
offered to increase fares by 20% if
Braniff would follow suit.
Putnam taped the phone
conversation, but although
American settled the case with a
consent decree, the airline did
not admit or deny any attempt at
collusion. •
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